


His Friend, His Dog, and Perhaps a Field of Wild Flowers

by Lillian_Sunshine



Category: Historical RPF, Lewis and Clark
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 23:18:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13491912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lillian_Sunshine/pseuds/Lillian_Sunshine
Summary: A little vignette on Clark and somewhat Reuben after Lewis' suicide. Someone has to claim responsibility for Seaman after all. This was partially inspired by the depiction of Lewis in a field of wildflowers that's in Clay Jenkinson's The Character of Meriwether Lewis





	His Friend, His Dog, and Perhaps a Field of Wild Flowers

"I'm meeting Reuben at the apartment today. I offered to help him take care of some of Lewis' things." I said over breakfast.

Julia, who had previously been cooing at little Meriwether and trying to get him to eat a mushy substance, looked up. “I’m sure there’s a lot to do.”

“I’ll be back by dinner. Are you sure you’re alright with the… with the…” I blushed. I hated this. I never used to get tongue-tied about Lewis around Julia.

“Dog? Oh Bill what do you think of me that I would refuse you something so simple and so important to you? I think it will be wonderful for Meriwether to have a companion. I mean you say he’s docile?”

“Oh,” I said, forcing my lips into a tight smile. “The most loyal and docile creature in the world.”

Julia cocked her head at me like she always did when she was concerned. She put her hand on my cheek. It itched and I wished she would take it away, but I said nothing. “Well then we shall regard this as the one silver lining to come from this terrible business.”

I wanted to laugh at her for that, but when I considered the earnest goodwill behind her naivete I found the strength within me to push the bitter laugh down somewhere deep and give her the most reassuring smile I could muster. “Perhaps.” I smiled at Meriwether and kissed my wife and then I bolted for freedom.

***

I knew she was just being nice about the dog; Julia disliked most pets. They were more mess than she generally thought worthwhile. Consenting to a gigantic Newfoundland was a true sacrifice and I felt terrible that I didn’t appreciate it. It should’ve been one more reason to esteem my choice of wife, but I found myself wishing for any reason not to accept Reuben’s offer of ownership over the poor creature, wifely intervention included.

It was cold outside and I wished I had had the presence of mind to put on a heavier coat. No matter. It was worth it to get out of that house. I wondered if Julia would be as accommodating to me as she was now if she knew the contents of Lewis’ letter.

It was an uncharitable thought, and I did my best to shake it away. Lewis had never been the most courteous to her, but she was still sensitive of my affections towards him. Surely that would not change. She probably wouldn’t even be surprised. I recalled the night she asked me to tell Lewis to find other living arrangements. _Really Bill I’d like to give him the respect he deserves as your friend, but his manner towards me is brusque and distant. At the dinner table he scarcely says a word to me other than “pass the salt”. I don’t doubt his good will towards you but he hogs you like a jealous girl._

It bothered me, how much sense Lewis’ letter made. How unsurprising his confessions were. They didn’t change my high opinion of him, but they did disquiet my opinion of myself.

Of course I had noticed his stares. Of course I noticed the way he used to “accidentally” inch closer to me on our nights spent sharing the same buffalo pelt. Of course I did.

I might’ve done more, more than throw the nearest acquaintance of Julia’s at him in the hopes that something would stick. What that might’ve been eluded me. It eludes me still. Should I have ignored him, quelled any hope of friendship between us? Surely not. At the same time was it so wrong to not want to be bedfellows with an unwell man? Was it so wrong to choose Julia, to want to build a life with someone who always tried to be cheerful and who I could always count on to see to the house and the servants?

I don’t know. But perhaps I could have done something more than nothing. Perhaps I could have at least let him know I didn’t think any less of him. I shook my head. It didn’t matter anymore.

“Clark! Clark!” I turned around to see Reuben Lewis making his way hurriedly through the crowd. With some surprise I realized that I had been so caught up in my thoughts I had walked straight past Lewis’ lodgings and had continued on for nearly a block.

“I… saw you… out the window…” Reuben gasped when he caught up to me. It was the first time we had seen each other after the news.

“I’m so sorry!” I apologized, “I was completely in my own head, it’s a lucky thing you were watching or I might have been liable to keep on walking until I reached the Rockies!”  
He smiled and clapped his hand on my back. “Nevermind, thank you so much for coming, it’s a big help.”

“Oh Reuben,” I said as we walked back down the block. “It’s not a favor so much as it is a duty.”

He let us in to his brother’s apartment. It was the same depressing place I remembered, except now everything was covered in a layer of dust. His papers were everywhere, half-written executive orders mixed with IOU slips. _I’d like to show Washington this._ I thought bitterly. _Make them understand how hard it was for anyone, least of all Lewis to keep track of anything in this mess. Make them understand that he was a wreck not a liar._

“I would be embarrassed if you were anyone else, but I know you won’t judge him for this. I think Lewis thought of you as more of a brother than me.”

“Trust me he didn’t.”

“Well anyway, I thought you might want to take a look around a bit. Anything of his you might want is yours. I know he certainly owed you enough money.”

“Please Reuben no more of that. If it was mine to give it was his and we’ll have an end to the mat- oh!”

Seaman barged out of Lewis’ bedroom and made a beeline for me. In an instant all the fear and apprehension I had towards seeing such a symbol of my friend melted away, and I knew refusing him would be the same as refusing Meriwether himself. I knelt down. “Hello boy it’s wonderful to see you!” He enthusiastically licked my face and I could hear his big tail whacking the dinner table.

“This is the first time he’s stirred all day,” Reuben offered. “He’s just been lying on that bed sorta forlorn like,”

“Ah well your brother did always have a penchant for curling up with the animal.” I said smiling with the memory. “Warmer than buffalo skin. I remember a few nights Seaman went off wandering and Lewis positively could not sleep.” I scratched at his ears. “And when Indians kidnapped this fellow right here well, you can forget it. I think he would’ve set the whole Plains on fire to get him back, if that’s what it took.”

Seaman looked at me and back to the room as if to say _My master’s gone can’t you feel it. _I patted him softly.__

__“Would you still like to take him?” Reuben said. “I don’t really a have use for dogs.”_ _

__“Oh absolutely. You don’t know what you’re missing. If you take this big guy with you he’ll always bring you back home again.”_ _

__“Perhaps that was my brother’s problem.”_ _

__I looked at Reuben and smiled. “Part of it anyway.” I knew the comment was meant to lighten the mood, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened to Lewis if Seaman was with him. He loved that dog, he would have never left him to fend for himself. More likely Seaman would’ve nosed Lewis insistently like I saw him do a million times whenever Lewis was in one of his moods, and then Lewis would have smiled and laid down and Seaman would’ve climbed on top of his chest and Lewis would have stroked his fur until sleep took him._ _

__It was a better thought that most I’d been having lately._ _

__“Here.” Reuben said. I looked up to find him holding a stack of familiar looking journals. “I assume you’ll want these.”_ _

__“Can you burn mine,” I said dryly as I reached out to grab the journals. “Lord I have my work cut out in front of him don’t I.”_ _

__“I don’t envy you.” Reuben said. “I know he was supposed to take care of it.”_ _

__“You never have to apologize for him to me,” I said. “Save that for the outsiders, he and I have our own private score sheet.”_ _

__“I’m glad he had you. I’m grateful he had someone who could handle him.”_ _

__“You ought to have see your brother in a field of wildflowers Reuben, surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness on all sides,” I said with shining eyes. “He didn’t need any handling then. Just his tools for flower pressing and a few hours of solitude and he could surpass the whole corps’ happiness put together.”_ _

__He averted his eyes and then looked up at me with that all too familiar Lewis sadness. “Jefferson should have never given him this job, I do believe it was the death of him.”_ _

__I closed my eyes and held on to that image of my friend in the sun for just a little longer._ _

__***  
“Meriwether I want you to meet Seaman!”_ _

__“Semen!” Meriwether Lewis cried as he exuberantly patted down Seaman’s fur. I laughed and Julia pretended to be stern._ _

__“Really Bill! What will company think?”_ _

__“Blame Lewis darling I swear that man always did have a flair for the dramatic.”_ _

__“Hmmph” She smiled at me and I could feel the distance that I had allowed to get between us receding._ _

__“Meriwether be careful dear!” Julia said as she watched Meriwether lean against the dog’s side as heavily as if he were a brick wall. “He’s a lot bigger than you!”_ _

__I was ready to intervene if I had to, but Seaman proved as steadfast and loyal as ever and only wagged his tail as my son grinned and shouted “Semen!” over and over again._ _

__I put my arm around my wife and kissed her. “It’s alright Julia. He would never harm a Lewis.”_ _


End file.
